


Returning the Stars

by necropolisiansasss



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2017-02-02
Packaged: 2018-08-07 14:37:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7718659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/necropolisiansasss/pseuds/necropolisiansasss
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is my take on what happens after season 3. All characters that didn't have a definitive death will probably be in this. Grounders and skai kru alike are dealing with the information Clarke brought back from the City of Light-and you know, the impending deaths of everyone they love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> You probably shouldn't read this if you aren't all caught up on season 3. Major spoilers will ensue.

      All she could do was scour her hands until the skin was raw and her own blood mixed into the already tainted water basin. It felt like Pike’s blood was seeping into her pores, her body. Scrubbing wasn’t enough. Charles Pike’s life was caked into her palms, no matter how hard her fingernails raked into the pink flesh. All she could think was _He killed Lincoln. He killed Lincoln. He killed Lincoln._

      She jumped when arms encircled her bony shoulders, thrashing wildly to get away.  
      “O, you’ve got to stop. Look at me, you’re bleeding.” Bellamy’s calm voice fought its way through her scattered thoughts and she looked into her brother’s eyes.

      Her brother who kept her locked under the floorboards for years. Her brother, who tied Lincoln up in the dropship like an animal so he could torture and interrogate him. Her brother, who had followed Pike into battle to slaughter hundreds of grounders. She looked into his eyes and saw that he understood.  
      “I had to kill him, Bell.” She fell into him and he held her shaking bony shoulders. “I had to-.” He shushed her gently.  
      “I know, O,” he said. “God, I know. I’m so sorry.”

      He smoothed the tangled mess of hair out of her face. She wasn’t going down for this. He couldn’t let her. _My sister, my responsibility_ , he thought.  
     

      She tore roughly out of his arms and retched. Bellamy winced, rubbing circles on her back but looking away nonetheless. He swallowed hard. He knew Octavia had claimed her fair share of lives since they first landed, but he didn’t remember it ever effecting her this badly. The heaving finally ended, and Octavia looked at her brother with dead eyes and a sheen of sweat covering her forehead. She saw the concern in his eyes before he even opened his mouth. He had a habit of furrowing his brow in the middle when he was worried about her.

      “I’m fine,” she said curtly, wiping her mouth on her sleeve. “Let’s go.”

      Bellamy didn’t say anything. He followed his sister back into Polis. Somebody got the lift working again, and Bellamy and Octavia ascended in silence. Upstairs had been transformed into a makeshift infirmary. Clarke was tending to minor wounds while Abby took care of the severe injuries. A small smile tugged at Bellamy’s mouth when he saw Clarke back in her natural habitat. This was where she belonged, healing her people. Not fighting wars and negotiating treaties.

      Murphy was receiving sutures in his forehead, the dolt. He had his arm around a girl with tattoos on her face. They were whispering back and forth, Murphy trying to get a smile out of her.

      “Who’s the grounder girl?” Bellamy asked quietly.  
      “We’re all grounders, Bell.” Came Octavia’s hollow voice as she walked away, deliberately not looking to the corner. Some one had moved the bodies of Ontari and Pike, draping a cover over their lifeless forms. _Not for long_ , Bellamy thought, but kept it to himself. He doubted Clarke had the chance to tell anyone else that the Earth would soon be uninhabitable.

      Two days later, the sky people reentered Arkadia. Those who could carried the wounded on makeshift stretchers. There were too many lives lost to bring home their dead; pyres were lit just outside of Polis.

      Jaha’s first steps into camp were in chains.

      Bellamy saw Monty sneaking Octavia herbs; mint, ginger, whatever he could find on their journey home. Bellamy knew his sister was still hanging on to what she did to Pike, still sick.  
     “You okay?” He asked when she returned from a short walk away from the group. She only gave him a tightlipped “Fine,” before scanning the pack for Monty.

      Of course, Clarke demanded a council meeting as soon as they got back to Arkadia, Bellamy at her side. Kane and Abby both insisted that everyone needed rest more than another drag out council meeting.

      “Over half the council is dead.” Kane said weakly, stifling a yawn. Clarke insisted.

      “We may have won that battle, but there’s more to come.” She was using her leader voice, they noticed, a voice that commanded that everyone should listen up. Their lives likely depended upon it. “We need to prepare for the worst.”  
      “And there are worse things out there than the hell we just went through,” Bellamy added, and Clarke sent him a grateful smile. They were in it together again, just like Mount Weather.

      Abby and Kane looked at each other, seeming to have a conversation without actually speaking a word. Finally, Abby spoke. “Get me Raven Reyes, Sinclair, and Indra. The seven of us will function as council pro tempore until there’s time to have a vote.”  
“Sinclair is dead.” The words fell out of Clarkes mouth before she had a chance to think of a way to cushion the blow. Her mother visibly faltered.

      “It was Emerson,” she explained quickly, unsure of whether or not her mom could handle another loss. “He-he was waiting here for us-for me, really-” Her sentence broke off when Abby turned away from her daughter and buried her face in Kane’s shoulder.

      “Indra and Reyes it is, then. We’ve got a lot to discuss.” Kane said.

      “My sister…“ Bellamy began, then stopped as if second guessing what he was about to ask. Kane looked to Abby before giving a short nod.  
      “Octavia, too.”  
      Bellamy sighed, relieved they wouldn’t immediately shackle his little sister with Jaha for killing the chancellor.


	2. Chapter 2

           Raven was just getting into a really good nap when a hesitant knock sounded at her door. She strongly considered ignoring it, but her curiosity got the best of her. There was a brief moment, before she got her bearings where she forgot; forgot that she was on Earth, that Finn was dead, forgot that her damn leg was crippled, and it was amazing. Then she felt the twinge of pain in her hip, saw her makeshift brace leaning against the wall across the cramped room and it all came back. She sighed, wincing as she pushed out of the small bed. When she finally made her way to the door, she was surprised to find Clarke on the other side.

           “You’re back,” she said, and Clarke nodded.

            “So,” she ventured. “How does Councilor Reyes sound?” Raven raised a brow and Clarke took a deep breath, readying herself for Ravens refusal. She wasn’t sure how Raven would react to be elected councilor pro tempore.

            “My mom wants you on the council. Until we can rally enough people to get a real vote.”

            “You’ve got to be kidding,” she scoffed. “I’m a mechanic, not a government official.”

            “Please, Raven. We need you.” After a staring contest, she relented.

            Clarke waited in the doorway while Raven went back inside and began the daily struggle with her leg brace. As she watched Raven fiercely yank tight countless straps and buckles, Clarke wondered if she had any feeling left in the leg at all.

            “Who else is getting dragged into this?” She asked as Clarke began walking, trying to slow her pace so Raven didn’t have to struggle to keep up. Clarke told her everyone else that was asked to sit in on the meeting, not mentioning that Sinclair was requested as well. She wondered, briefly, if anyone had gotten rid of his body, then remembered Emerson’s left near the airlock. She considered going to check, but decided against it. They were dead, and everyone else would be too, if she didn’t tell them what she’d learned in the City of Light.

            She winced remembering the City of Light. Lexa. She’d looked so real, _felt so real._ She’d never tell anyone, but pulling that lever in the City of Light was harder than pulling the one in Mount Weather.

            Bellamy had his hand on Octavia’s shoulder when they arrived, and she was drinking more of that minty smelling tea Monty kept giving her. Her eyes were staring ahead, empty. Other than her hands that were now rough and chapped, but clean nonetheless, she looked as if she hadn’t washed since they left Polis. Clarke looked to Bellamy over Octavia’s head questioningly, but he just shook his head. _Leave her be._

            “This meeting is not public. You are not to tell anyone what you hear in this room until Abby or I tell you otherwise, understood?” Kane’s words only succeeded in intensifying the already palpable tension coursing through the room, and he didn’t wait for a response. “Great. You’ve all been chose to be a part of the temporary council. Congratulations,” He spit the word out as if it were a bad taste, stuck in the back of his throat. “We will be making decisions until things calm down around here enough to a proper election.”

            “Are you still chipped, Kane?” Indra’s strong voice sounded from the doorway. Five heads snapped to face her. Octavia continued staring straight ahead. “Your _Council_ is made entirely of children and one of your enemy.”

            Kane sat down at the head of the table tiredly. The lights hadn’t been fixed yet in this section of the Ark; they flickered sending shadows dancing over a million new creases in his skin.

            “You saved my life,” he said simply. “I hardly see you as the enemy. As for the kids,” he looked around the room at them, surveying their faces. Octavia, staring into a mug of herbs motionlessly; Raven, holding on to the back of a chair, favoring the leg not encased in metal; Clarke and Bellamy who had kept the hundred alive as best as they could for so long, neither of them knowing how to stop being strong.

            “They stopped being kids the day we sent them down here to die.” Abby finished for him, echoing words Raven had told her so long ago. “Now please, sit down. Unless you plan on returning to Polis, we need your help, Indra.”

None of them discussed who the new chancellor would be. That would have required acknowledging that Pike was dead, and Bellamy had asked them not to bring him up in front of Octavia. Kane had argued, saying she needed to face what she’d done, but Clarke put an end to that. She too understood what Octavia was going through. She’d answer for her crime in her own way in her own time; forcing it would probably make things worse for all of them.

            It was quiet for a few moments, then Clarke took charge again, turning on her leader voice like a switch. “A.L.I.E. is dead. I think she is, anyway. She was never actually alive, but I shut down her program.” She was slouching in her chair, with one foot tucked underneath her and the other knee brace against the table. She looked more casual than she had in months, but everyone could see she was trying to say something she really didn’t want to say. “She told my something, before I hit the switch.”

            “Are you sure she wasn’t just trying to keep you from shutting down the program?” Some one asked. Bellamy.

            “Wouldn’t surprise me.” Raven muttered.

            “No. No, I thought that too at first, but Becca was there, too.” She heard Indra’s sharp intake of air at the mention of the first heda. “Becca said everything A.L.I.E. told me was true.” Clarke looked to her mom, and despite the hell she’d been through since her father was floated, in that moment Abby’s daughter still looked so small. Her voice broke when she said “Mom, we have to go back to space.”

           

            The room erupted into chaos, Raven demanding what the hell she meant _go back?_ Kane shouted for everyone to calm down and discuss thing rationally. Indra scoffed. Even Octavia, who hadn’t moved since shed entered the room snapped into the conversation, immediately arguing with whoever she could hear over the din.

            “Everybody shut the hell up.” Bellamy commanded over the arguments, and they did, shocked that he was so calm about this. He hadn’t told anyone what Clarke had said to him right before Octavia killed Pike and chaos erupted in Polis; they didn’t know he’d had the whole journey home to process this.

            “The nukes all over the world are active. Soon, the earth will be toxic again-with more radiation that even _we_ can handle,” he said, referring to the sky people. “It’s either fix up the ark and go back to space, or figure out how to make Mount Weather survivable.”

            “You can’t just _fix_ the Ark and send it back to space!” Raven interjected. “They were ejected thousands of miles to Earth, and most of them had pretty rocky landings.” She gestured a hand wildly in the air. “Our damn lights barely even work.” Octavia blew a puff of air out of her nostrils-a laugh. The lights were giving her an insane headache.

            “We did it before,” Clarke insisted.

            “We had way more technology then, Clarke. Mechanics, technicians.” Raven’s head dropped into her hands, before snapping back up quickly. “I don’t know,” she blurted, shrugging her shoulders helplessly. “I don’t know.”

            The kids stopped their discussion, realizing they weren’t going to get anywhere without Kane and Abby’s approval. They had remained silent throughout the entire conversation.

            “Mom?” Clarke asked, her voice tentative as if she were afraid Abby might crack.

            “This is-this is _insane._ This is insane, right?” Her eyes wildly found Kane’s and he rested a hand on her thigh reassuringly.

            “We can’t make a decision like this right now. We all need time, rest.”

            “Four months,” Clarke said, not meeting anyone’s eyes. “Four months is all we’ve got.” They say nothing, silently absorbing this new information. Finally, Kane sent them all to bed, reassuring that they would meet again first thing tomorrow.

            The room began to clear out, but Octavia remained seated, hands wrapped tightly around her mug. Clarke sat next to her, nudging her strong leg with her own. Octavia blinked hard, as if waking up.

            “You okay?” Clarke asked, concern written all over her face. “You should head to the infirmary, get checked out. You don’t look very good.”

            “I’m fine, Clarke,” she snapped, then looked as if she regretted it. “I’ll let you know if I get any worse.”


	3. Chapter 3

That night, hours after everyone had fallen into fitful bouts of sleep, Bellamy banged on Clarkes bedroom door. His face was drawn and he was clearly out of breath.

            “I need your help. It’s O,” he said in a rush.

            “Where is she?”

            “I brought her to the infirmary, but she’s sick. She threw up three more times since the meeting earlier and now I can't wake her up.”

            Clarke was already making her way hastily down the hall to her mom’s quarters. If Octavia was really sick, she would need a real doctor. Clarke had been playing Ambassador in Polis for so long, she had hardly practiced any medicine in months. Bellamy followed, hot on her heels. He’d felt a small knot of worry settle in his stomach when he’d first found Octavia after she killed Pike, but he’s brushed it off as overprotectiveness. Since she landed on Earth, Octavia had transformed herself into a warrior-she didn’t need her big brother as much as she used to. But this was more than a belly ache, and Bellamy briefly thought the growing knot in his stomach might make him sick as well.

            “Three _more_ times?” Clarke asked as they ran through the Ark, trying to stay somewhat quiet. “After the meeting she told me she was fine. How long has she been sick?” Bellamy winced.

            “Since Polis.”

 

            Bellamy knew Clarke would have given him hell for not saying anything sooner, but they had reached Abby’s room and she was too busy rapping fiercely on the metal. Kane answered. They both looked taken aback by each other, but Bellamy really didn’t know what Clarke had expected.

            They heard Abby’s tired voice from within. “Marcus, who is it?” Kane took a moment before slowly responding, “Your daughter.” If Bellamy weren’t so worried about his sister, he would have laughed at the look on Clarkes face. She continued to stare at Kane, a bit openmouthed. Some scuffles came from within, and Abby appeared adjusting her shirt.

            “What happened?” she asked. She had clearly been asleep, but was now struggling to become alert.

            “Octavia’s sick,” Bellamy answered for Clarke, immediately disregarding her obvious discomfort towards Kane being in her mother’s quarters. “We need your help.”

 

            The three of them headed quickly to the infirmary, where they found Octavia, pale and sprawled across an exam table. Abby shook off the lingering fingers of sleep and got to work checking vitals and connecting monitors.

            “How long has she been like this?” she asked Bellamy over a shoulder.

            “Ten, twenty minutes, tops. I got Clarke right after I brought her here.”

            Bellamy watched, looking like a lost puppy. He kept fidgeting as if he wanted to help, but then remembered he didn’t really have any medical training. After a few minutes he resorted to pacing, alternating between crossing his arms and shoving his fingers roughly through his hair. Clarke heard him muttering to himself, but was too focused on Octavia to discern any words.

            After what felt like an eternity, Abby declared that Octavia would be fine. “You said she’s been vomiting-she’s dehydrated. I gave her some fluids intravenously, so she should wake up any minute.” Even as she said this, Octavia’s eyes began fluttering, her heart rate returning to normal. “Once she wakes up and regains her bearings, we’ll have to give her an exam and ask some questions to find out why she’s been getting sick so frequently.”

            “I want Clarke to do it,” Octavia mumbled from the table. Bellamy looked like he might cry when he heard his sisters voice. Clarke smiled.

            “That’s fine,” Abby assured her.

            Bellamy continued worrying over Octavia while Abby briefed Clarke on what to do during Octavia’s exam. The relief he felt when Octavia reached out, and shakily grabbed his hand in her own had almost knocked him off his feet. He had been so worried for Octavia, like the time when she was eight and got sick on the Ark. Bellamy had to go see the doctor and pretend to be sick, just like Octavia, in order to get her the medicine. He remembered his mother warning him of the risks of getting caught faking an illness in order to get drugs. He’d be arrested, then probably floated when he turned eighteen. But he couldn’t let his sister get anymore sick; it was killing him to sit back and do nothing.

            “Bellamy,” Clarke interrupted, gently. “You should go get some sleep. I’ve got things covered here.”

            “You can’t be in the room during the exam anyway,” Abby insisted, sensing that he was going to put up a fight. He sighed, defeated and kissed Octavia's head.

            “Send Nurse Griffin if you need me, okay?” he told her, tossing a grin Clarke’s way. She rolled her eyes, but felt the smallest of smiles tug at the corners of her mouth. It felt good. They hadn’t smiled in so long. On his way out he mouthed a silent _thank you_ to Clarke and Abby followed him out the door.

            Clarke turned on her heel, pinning Octavia with a chastising stare.

 “You said you were fine.”

“Yeah, well I’m fine now,” Octavia retorted, then thanked Clarke.

They went through the normal privacy invading steps of a physical examination. Clarke checked her ears, eyes, nose and mouth, and Octavia wondered why. Her stomach was sick, not her left nostril.

The exam started to go downhill when they got to the interrogation part. The questions started out easy. Clarke asked if Octavia had eaten anything strange or consumed water from any suspicious sources. The answers were all no.

Then she asked Octavia was sexually active.

Her breath caught in her throat, and Clarke saw her eyes fill with tears before she looked away.

“I was.” Her voice was hollow.

“I’m sorry,” Clarke said, and there wasn’t much else to say. She’d been warned about how emotional Octavia could get when anyone brought up Lincoln. Clarke wanted to reach out, tell Octavia that she knew exactly how she felt, but she swallowed the urge.  “Do you want to take a break?” she asked, but Octavia shook her head no.

“Okay,” Clarke took a deep breath. “When was your last period?”

Octavia opened her mouth, then shut it. She stared at the floor, as if it held all the answers. Clarke was afraid to say anything, afraid to move, but eventually she had no choice.

“Octavia-“ she tried.

“No.” The words came out like a whisper, pushed through her parted cracked lips by all the built up fear and tension. “No, no, no no.” Tears fell down her face, but she made no noise. She was breaking. She had lost so much, her mother, Atom, _Lincoln._ She had seen so much, gone through so much. Octavia Blake had been so strong for so long, it was a wonder she hadn’t broken earlier.

“Octavia,” Clarke reached for her urgently. “Octavia, you need to calm down. Breathe, Octavia. Look just like me.” Clarke demonstrated, and Octavia watched, eyes wide.

“Good,” she said. “You’re going to be okay. You’re okay.” Octavia nodded empathetically, but she looked anything but okay. She had begun sweating again and looked trapped in her own skin. Clarke prayed Octavia wouldn’t get sick again-she tended to be a sympathetic puker. _Not a very good trait for a doctor,_ she thought offhand as she continued breathing with Octavia.

Octavia’s irregular breaths finally drained down to the odd hiccup here and there, and the two girls sat in silence, unsure of what to do next.

“I’m pregnant?” Octavia blurted, her voice shaky. Clarke almost laughed. The girl threw herself into battle so eagerly, yet the idea of having another human inside her sent her into a full blown panic attack.

“My mom will have to run a few tests in the morning,” she took a deep breath. “But from what I can tell it sure looks like it.” Octavia was silent again for a long time.

“Do you want me to get Bell-“ Clarke began to ask.

“No!” Octavia insisted. “No, you can’t tell him. I don’t want to tell anyone yet. Just let me have this for a while, okay? I will tell him, just-not yet.”

Clarke looked skeptical, but promised not to tell anyone except Abby. Of course she did. She lost some one during this war too. Octavia wanted something of Lincoln’s to be hers and only hers, at least for a while. And now she had something she could hang on to forever, despite not knowing if she could handle this. Octavia didn’t know what to feel. She was relieved that Lincoln’s legacy would live on, but at what cost? How hard was it going to be watching their child grow up, hearing them ask about their father and not being able to answer their every question? There was so much even Octavia didn’t know about Lincoln. They had only known each other for a short amount of time, but damn if it didn’t feel like forever and not enough to her all at once

And what kind of life could she give her baby? Did she even want to bring a child into a world like this? There probably wouldn’t even _be_ an Earth left soon. Her head was swimming with questions that she couldn’t answer now, and maybe not even tomorrow.

Clarke cleared her to go back to the room with Bellamy and to come get her if further vomiting occurred. They planned to meet with Abby after the council meeting tomorrow morning.

“Go get some sleep, Octavia.” Clarke said before leaving.

“Thank you, Clarke. For everything.”

She threw up twice more during the night. Bellamy didn’t hear either time, so she decided no one had to know. At least not until her appointment with Abby anyway. She lay down in the small bed across from her brothers and rested her hand over the bottom of her bell, trying to ignore the growing sense of worry. _I’m fine,_ she thought. _Abby said everything’s fine. I am not afraid._ She fell asleep listening to Bellamy snore softly hours later.


	4. Chapter 4

           Not surprisingly, they didn’t solve any world-ending-problems at the meeting the next morning. More arguments ensued, with each person shouting louder than the last to get their opinion heard. Raven insisted that even if they could somehow manage to get a ship to launch back into orbit, there was no way everyone could fit. Abby refused to even think about another culling this early in the game. Bellamy said those who couldn’t fit on the new Ark could go live in Mount Weather, but all hell broke loose when Indra pointed out that his plan would still leave more than half of the grounders to die, and they were still trying to clear a path back inside.

            After about an hour of getting nowhere, Abby called the meeting to a close.

            “I have patients to tend to,” she said, and Octavia silently prayed that Bellamy hadn’t noticed Abby’s eyes flick toward her.

            Clarke asked Bellamy to help her take an inventory in the armory, and Octavia knew it was so she could meet with Abby in the infirmary again without him trying to follow. He’d been on her heels like a lost puppy ever since her collapse. She smiled her thanks at Clarke as she left with her brother.

            “Alright, let’s get this over with,” Octavia said, coming up next to Abby.

            “Where are you two going?” Kane asked, and Octavia faltered.

            “Octavia’s coming to the infirmary with me for the day,” Abby lied easily. “She wanted to learn some trauma treatments, in case anyone gets injured on the battlefield.” Kane smiled a little, pleased with the idea and kissed Abby on the cheek before leaving.

 

            “How are you feeling today?” Abby asked once Octavia was setting back on the examination table and changed into a gown. It itched. She contemplated her words before answering.

            “I’m still sick,” she said, wincing at Abby’s already scolding expression. “I threw up twice more last night.”

            “Why didn’t you come find me?”

            Octavia shrugged. “I thought I’d get better after I got some sleep.”

            “And?”

            “And then I puked again this morning,” she said reluctantly. “Did Clarke tell you about…” Her sentence trailed off, not wanting to voice it despite knowing it was probably true.

            “Yes. And while there’s no way to tell for sure this early, it does seem as though you’re with child.” She smiled and Octavia sucked in a sharp breath. “I also think you’ve got hyperemesis.” She saw Octavia’s confused expression and quickly began explaining.

            “Hyperemesis is like extreme morning sickness,” she explained, and Octavia rolled her eyes. _Of course she’d get stuck with_ extreme _sickness._ “Many women experience morning sickness while they’re pregnant, but yours tends to be constant and feels a lot like the flu.”

            “How do we treat it?” Octavia asked, trying to remain brave. Abby took a deep breath.

            “It’s hard,” she said. “Especially now, its going to be hard. But I’m going to give you as much medicine for the nausea as I can spare, and I’ll send some one out collect extra herbs. We'll make a tea that will hopefully help you and your baby feel better. Of course, you’ll still have to be closely monitored. Daily check ups.” Octavia huffed, taking it all in. Abby smiled kindly.

            “You can do this Octavia. You’re strong. Do you have any questions before you go?”

            “I’d like to keep this quiet for now,” she said. “Only you and Clarke know.” She thought for a  moment before saying, “I think Monty might know, too.”

            Abby told her she understood and scheduled their next appointment.

 

            Over the next few weeks, they didn’t make much progress in the saving humanity department. Raven had traveled to Mount Weather to take measurements and run tests to determine radiation levels and how many people could survive there. She took Bellamy and Monty with her along with a few engineers they’d managed to scrape up. It gave Octavia a short reprieve from her brothers prying eyes. It also took Monty away for almost a week, making Octavia more irritable than usual. He made the best tea when her stomach was upset-which was almost constantly.

            Clarke spent the entire time Bellamy was gone badgering Octavia to tell her brother.

            “He deserves to know, Octavia.” She’d whine in her ear at least five times a day. To which Octavia would respond: “What my brother deserves is a swift kick in the ass, but you don’t see me giving him that, do you?” Octavia cracked a smile when she said it, but Clarke didn’t find it funny.

            She was annoying, yes, but Clarke was also more helpful than anyone. Her and Monty had become Octavia ragtag pregnancy support group. They helped her keep her secret-her last piece of Lincoln-to herself, at least for a little while.

            Bellamy came home from a mission with Raven one day to find his sister wearing one of his old t-shirts.

            “What’s this?” He asked, and Octavia shrugged.

            “My shirt was getting gross. This was just the first thing I found.” She didn’t tell him that while inspecting herself in the mirror one night, she’d noticed her belly had started to protrude.

            Even though he was gone a lot, Bellamy noticed Octavia acting differently. She wasn’t going out as much, wasn’t training with Indra. He was worried she’d lost all hope of fixing things. The world didn’t need another warrior if it was just going to explode anyway.

            He’d heard her retching in their shared bathroom one night, but she refused to go see Abby, just said she would talk to Clarke about it tomorrow.

            Octavia could see how concerned Bellamy was, and it was getting so hard for her not to tell him everything. She’d almost told him four times already, but always ended up backing out at the last second. She hadn’t meant to keep her baby a secret for so long, and now Bellamy would probably be pissed at her for keeping it from him.

            She sighed punching her pillow into place angrily. It was impossible to get comfortable anymore, and even if she managed it, she would end up getting up to pee ten minutes later. Pregnancy, she decided, was stupid.

 

            The decision had been made to warn the grounders of their impending doom. Clarke trekked back to Polis, with Bellamy at her side, along with a few guards. Her meeting had been with Roan, who appeared to be leading the Grounders. She guessed it made sense. They had no flame keeper, and no one to put the flame in.

            They didn’t even have the flame. Clarke told them it was lost during the fight at Polis. She felt a little guilty about lying, but they couldn’t do anything with it anymore, so she kept it. Despite it being cringe-worthy level cheesy, Lexa rested in her pocket above her heart. Clarke truly believed that Lexa’s spirit was still guiding her somehow.

            At first Roan didn’t believe her.

            “What do you mean the nukes are going to go off?” He practically hissed at them. “They’ve been inactive for over a century.”

            Bellamy answered for her. She was too busy seething over the fact that King Roan was lounging on Lexa’s throne, talking down to them. She briefly imagined kicking him out the window behind him, and almost laughed out loud when she thought of what Lexa would think.

            “They’re going off, and there’s no way we can stop them. Not all of them, anyway. It’s why A.L.I.E. was recruiting people for the City of Light. Holding you hostage there was the only way to keep you protected from the radiation.” Clarke made are quotes wit her fingers when she said _protected._

            Roan considered this for a moment before asking “What is being done to protect our people?”

            “There is no _we,_ and there is no _our people.”_ Clarke snapped, not giving Bellamy a chance to interject. “ _My people_ are doing everything they can to find a way to keep as many of us alive as possible,” Clarke began walking towards the dais and Roan waved off the guards that snapped into motion as she neared him. “Despite what happened in the past, Roan, our people are _not_ the same people.” When she reached him, Roan stood up to meet her. Although he knew it was hopeless, he tried to stop the words from coming out of her mouth. It was like being back in Polis, in this room, had reopened every wound that she had been silently licking back at Arkadia. Bellamy struggled between wanting to stop her and being proud of her finally standing up to the Grounders as she stood face to face with the king.

            “I wish the grounders the best of luck in surviving what’s coming, but I am _done_ sacrificing the people I love for the sake of some grounders.”

            The next day Roan sent a team to attack the crew running tests at Mount Weather.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I sort of forgot I had a 10,000 word fanfic to post. So sorry about that. Here you go.

Clarke jumped in her seat as Bellamy shifted uncomfortably at her side. They sat side by side, not daring to move under Kane’s glare. It was the third time his fist slammed on the table. He’d even kicked a chair, and still Clarke and Bellamy sat unmoving.  
“What exactly happened in Polis?” Kane ground out through clenched teeth. Bellamy cleared his throat.  
“King Roan is now leading the grounders. We warned them about the nukes, but things got…intense.” Bellamy was trying his damnedest not to glance at Clarke. She lost it in Polis and barely spoke the entire ride back home. Usually when anybody discussed working with the grounders, she was always the one advocating the loudest for them. The others.  
They had come so far, many of the sky people including his own sister didn’t view the grounders as any different from themselves. But here they were again, fighting the battle of survival on two fronts: undefeatable bombs dating back to the times before the station was launched and a group of humans, far more experienced in the art of war than them.  
“Roan expected to sit back and wait for us to solve all of the problems. He probably would have waited until the arch was ready to launch, or the mountain was ready to live in-waited and killed us so his people could survive.” Clarke said, and Kane’s pacing stopped for a moment. “He was just going to sit back on his throne-Lexa’s throne-“ Her voice broke.   
“Tell me you didn’t-“ His pleading gaze met her blank hollow stare.  
“Arkadia is no longer the thirteenth clan.”

Kane and Abby locked themselves in the conference room for hours. Bellamy and Raven talked about sending a reconnaissance team to Mount Weather to inspect the damage inflicted by the ice king; Clarke checked up on Octavia.  
“Have you told Bellamy yet?” Clarke nagged for the sixth time that week. Octavia desperately wished her sword hadn’t been confiscated when they returned from Polis.  
“Nope,” she said. “I haven’t seen him since he left for your brilliant visit with Roan.”  
They were quiet for a few moments.  
“Is it hard?” Clarke asked. “Staying here, I mean. Where-“  
“Where Pike shot Lincoln in the head and left his body in a puddle of mud while I watched?” Octavia snapped without thinking. She sighed, checking herself quickly. “Yeah. It’s hard. I lost control when I killed Pike, but I don’t regret it. I knew in that moment I wouldn’t be able to live with him breathing the same air.”   
“I know,” Clarke said softly  
“Is that what it’s like for you too?” Octavia asked hesitantly. “With Lexa?”  
Clarke gave a quick nod, leaving Octavia to figure out how to face her brother.

Bellamy found Octavia sitting on the bed across from his, back against the wall, elbows propped lazily on her knees.  
“Hey, I haven’t seen you since we got back,” he said sitting down next to her. He opened his mouth to say something else but Octavia jumped in before he could. If she didn’t just come out with it, she would chicken out again, and her brother should know.  
“Bell, I’m pregnant,” The words rushed passed her lips in a quiet whisper, and he watched as her brother stared openmouthed at her. He closed his mouth; opened it again. Then he encased her in a bone-crushing hug that seemed to last an eternity. Finally, he pulled back, an incredulous smile plastered on his stupid face.  
“Look at you, O. First delinquent on the ground, and first to have a kid on the ground.” He shook his head, still smiling and Octavia was so surprised by his reaction that a hoarse laugh escaped her lips. Before long the two of them were laughing together until their sides hurt, for what felt like the first time since Octavia lived under the floor. It felt good.

Octavia told everyone else at the meeting the next day. She was kind of forced into it, whether she was ready or not. Bellamy kept smiling at her and shaking his head in disbelief, bringing her tea. It would have been funny if it weren’t so absurd.  
Indra had chewed her out the most when she found out, demanding to know why she’d kept it a secret for so long. “Where do you think the hordes or warrior children around here come from?” She’d asked, and everyone laughed, but Octavia shifted in her seat trying to smile like everyone else.  
Her baby would not be a warrior. She’d already decided her child would have nothing to go to war for. Everyone was glad to see how much she participated in the meeting that day, ready to get the fighting over as soon as possible. She had done enough fighting and killing to last the original hundred a lifetime.

Indra said that the attack at Mount Weather was likely just to send a message: the fight isn’t over. Message received. “I’m not an expert on Ice Nation, but I do know Roan wont be giving up the lives of his people without a fight.”   
They planned for hours that day, sending some one to bring them lunch when they realized how late it had gotten. Conversation flowed easily, and for once arguments were few and far between. They were finally functioning like a real team, the deaths of those at the mountain had put a lot in perspective for them. And news of Octavia’s baby had them thinking about not only saving themselves, but saving future generations.

The next day, a heavily guarded crew set out for Mount Weather. Bellamy was reluctant to leave his Octavia, but she threatened to kick his ass if he didn’t find a place for her baby to live. Raven and Clarke waited for him at the gate. They all had guns.  
Clarke still felt guilty about what she said about Roan’s people-Lexa’s people. She loved Lexa and would help them as much as she could, but she had to face it: Lexa was gone and her people were turning against Clarke’s.  
They grew increasingly tense as they rode closer to the mountain, as if Roan would stroll out any minute with a sword and cut them down. But all remained quiet. Too busy leaving greasy ass prints on Lexa’s throne, Clarke thought but said nothing. She hadn’t been on any of the reconnaissance trips to the mountain before-she was always needed elsewhere-but Raven had gone, of course, and started explaining.  
“The mountain wasn’t as damaged as we originally thought,” she said, eyes scanning the trees. Bellamy rode on Clarke’s other side with guards ahead and behind them. “There are some lingering cracks in the walls but nothing that could take down the entire mountain. The hardest part was the bodies-“ she trailed off looking uncomfortable. Bellamy urged his horse to go faster, leaving Raven and Clarke behind him. Clarke looked to Raven questioningly. “A lot happened when you were gone, Clarke,” she said quietly.   
“Right now all we need to worry about is whether or not we can save Mount Weather’s operating systems-mainly the ones that filter the air.” They arrived at the entrance of the mountain, and Raven stopped talking just long enough to struggle down from her horse. Clarke looked away. “Obviously the mechanisms in there have a ton of damage, but they were built to last centuries; they’re strong. I’ve been bringing a few parts from the Ark and even the Dropship to help fix up the mountain because it’s going to hold the most people, but I don’t want to take too many pieces. The chances of getting a ship back to space are slim enough; I don’t need to add to that by ripping apart every station we’ve got down here.” Clarke nodded, understanding most of what Raven had said.  
Bellamy went inside, but Clarke grabbed Raven’s arm before she could follow. “Can you tell me who we lost here? I know there were a lot, but no one’s ever really…”  
Raven considered for a moment before telling her. “We lost most of Farm Station,” she said. Clarke closed her eyes, taking in the deaths, telling herself she wasn’t responsible for these new ones. Wanheda. Commander of Death. There was only so much death she could take claim to. She despised the title with every ounce of her being.  
“I lost a friend in there,” Raven admitted quietly. “She and Bellamy were close too.” Clarke opened her eyes. “Sinclair and I got out, but Gina-she didn’t make it.” Clarke nodded. She knew it would do no good to apologize, Raven didn’t need her to say she was sorry. It wouldn’t bring her friend back. It wouldn’t accomplish anything.  
Bellamy’s voice erupted through the opening.   
“Clarke!”  
Her stomach was knotted with fear instantly at the sound of Bellamy’s voice and she ran as fast as she could, not waiting for Raven.  
She stopped short when she reached Bellamy and two other guards, their guns trained on a dark haired man lounging in a chair. For a moment, Clarke feared it was Roan. Then realized the man was wearing a suit, and was far too clean to be King Roan.  
“Cage,” she whispered.  
He smiled, waving to her with a crude stump where his hand should have been.   
“Hello, Clarke.”


End file.
